“I felt like with my taper I was ready to swim fast,” Feiser sad. “My teammates always help me with practice and my coaches are really supportive of my swims. My best time was a 21-high this year, and that was a (20.97) so I was happy about that.”

Feiser had a busy morning, as he also finished third in the 100 butterfly (51.21) and anchored the 200 free relay to a surprise sixth-place finish (they came in seeded 10th), along with Matt Terrell, Alex McCullough and Colin Bauer.

With five automatic state bids in every event for Class AAA, Feiser is guaranteed a spot in the 50 free and 100 fly. The relay is not automatically in, but the sixth-place finisher in District 1 is all but assured to nab one of the state’s 16 wild card berths.

“I was more focused on this meet than states,” Feiser said. “But now I’m definitely ready for states.”

Feiser is looking forward to his high seed in the 50 free, but showed even more emotion with his teammates on deck after the surprising relay finish.

“It was great to swim with them, they’re my best friends really,” Feiser said. “Having them up there at states with me will make it 10 times better.”

As for Himmelwright, he came in hoping to better last year’s fourth-place district finish in the 50 free. And with only one automatic bid in every event in Class AA, there’s even more pressure to finish first.

“After the 50 free, when I realized I won, I was excited but I was a little upset about my time,” said Himmelwright, who beat second-place Tim Resch of Springfield-Montco by more than a second – a rout in 50 free terms. “But I know I’ve got states and I’ll definitely do better there. I’m proud of what I swam.”

When Himmelwright gets to Bucknell, he’ll have plenty of teammates around to cheer him on. The Tribe brought home gold in both of Thursday’s relays – the 200 medley (1:39.02) and 200 free (1:30.53) – with only the 400 free relay left in their sights on Friday.

“The relays are doing great this year,” said senior Mason Cassel, who swam butterfly in the medley along with backstroker Brandon Umstead, breaststroker Quinn Perlstein and freshman freestyler Hunter Peck. “We’re looking to sweep all three relays at districts. Everyone on the team is doing fantastic. We don’t know who to put in what relay because we’re all doing so great.”

The Tribe beat Springfield-Montco by more than two seconds in the medley relay, while the team of Bryon Scholl, Perlstein, Umstead and Himmelwright won the free relay by two seconds over Springfield and more than six seconds over third-place Upper Moreland.

“It’s a really good bonding experience with everybody doing so great this year,” said Cassel, who also won the AA 100 fly (52.29). “We weren’t really expecting it since we lost some of our depth (including graduated seniors Collin Junk and Blade Umstead), but we got some great freshmen and we’re doing really well.”

There were a few other state qualifiers in the morning session on Thursday, including the Perkiomen Valley AAA 200 medley relay of Will Swiss, Wyatt Amdor, Sean Hodgins and Kyle Dix (1:36.80), which finished third overall.

Perkiomen Valley freshman Amdor had a gut-wrenching morning, as he initially found himself out of the state berths in the AAA 200 IM, finishing sixth (1:57.28). But a few minutes later, the event’s winner – Conestoga’s Waylon Jin – was disqualified, bumping Amdor up to fifth and securing an automatic bid.

The morning’s final automatic bid went to Boyertown’s Steve Miller, who finished fifth in the AAA 200 free with a time of 1:43.33.

A few swimmers will spend their week scouring results from around the state in hopes of a wild card berth.

The Boyertown quartet of Chase Renninger, Russell Lambert, Seth Wrigley and Cody Weiler finished sixth (1:37.56) in the 200 medley relay, just missing an autobid but helping their state chances.

The Upper Perkiomen duo of Jason Mercando (1:48.63) and Peck (1:50.39) finished second and third in the AA 200 free, while PAC-10 swimmers went two-three-four in the AA 200 IM with Pottsgrove’s Morgan Schreiber (2:02.74), Upper Perk’s Umstead (2:04.57) and the Tribe’s Perlstein (2:06.49).

NOTESPottstown’s Anthony Gazzillo turned in a podium-worthy swim in the AA 50 free, finishing third with a time of 23.39. Phoenixville’s Jake Luzins was sixth (23.68). … In the larger AAA event in the 50 free, Perkiomen Valley’s Kyle Dix was 10th (22.00) and Methacton’s Rick Weber was 11th (22.01). … Upper Perkiomen sits second in the AA team standings heading into Friday with 213 points, just nine behind leader Springfield-Montco. Phoenixville is sixth (88 points) and Pottsgrove is eighth (67). … Perkiomen Valley is seventh in the AAA standings (71 points), while Owen J. Roberts is ninth (65), Boyertown 10th (63) and Methacton 19th (24).